DISCOVERY & INNOVATION IN GOVERNMENT IT

For 28 years, the GCN Awards have showcased general excellence in government IT. This year, with the GCN dig IT Awards, we sharpened the focus to showcase what matters most: transformative tech that is truly reinventing government. The 2016 awards celebrated leading-edge technologies and the pioneering IT professionals who are driving them forward.

The 2016 digIT Award winners have been announced – check out the full finalist list and winners!Winners Announced!

Tech Arcade

This special exhibit area showcased government agencies’ most innovative and leading-edge technologies – from robots to 3D printing.

awards

The 2016 awards celebrated leading-edge technologies and the pioneering IT professionals who are driving them forward in six tech categories. Congratulations to the finalists and winners!

Big Data, Analytics & Visualization

What new algorithms are changing the game? Is there an innovative analytics tool that gives workers a chance to see where their agency stands? Or is there a project where tech building blocks are familiar, but are being used in innovative ways that can truly transform a key agency operation?

Editor’s Choice: Open Data

Open data was not a predefined category for the Dig IT Awards, but it became obvious as the nominations rolled in that this was an area deserving of dedicated attention. And while not as visible or as "sexy" as some of the other categories, the open data ecosystem truly is transforming government.

2016 Finalists:

Open Prince George's County
Prince George's County Office of Information Technology

Next-Gen IT Dashboard
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Office of the Chief Information Officer (OFCIO)

FCW's Rising Star awards program is an opportunity for agencies and contractors to give their best up-and-comers a moment in the spotlight — both as a reward to those top performers and as an example to others.

FCW recognized those outstanding individuals who are doing great things today, and who are likely to be filling the senior slots tomorrow at the 2016 digIT Awards celebration.

Congratulations to all of this year's winners — 30 individuals you'll likely be hearing about for years to come:

tech arcade

The Tech Arcade was an exhibit area open to event attendees that featured hands-on demonstrations of government agencies' most innovative and leading-edge technologies.

Technologies featured included:

3D-Printed Weather Stations by USAID and NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance partnered on a program to provide 3D-printed weather stations to countries with limited weather monitoring capacity.

EPA Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) Program TRI Fast Tool by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
TRI tracks the management of toxic chemicals that may pose a threat to human health and the environment. The TRI FAST (BI Tool) is used by headquarters and regional partners to provide a near real-time view of TRI submission data and statistics.

Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology DivisionMK1 (Packbot) and MK2 (Talon) EOD Robots
The MK1 (Packbot) and MK2 (Talon) EOD Robots are modified commercial platforms fielded under the Man Transportable Robotics System Program of Record. With thousands of systems fielded the MK1 and MK2 provide EOD operators the ability to execute various EOD mission functions via an unmanned platform at a safe standoff.

Process Robotics
The federal government is exploring process robotics for defense, homeland security, health and other missions through proof-of-concept prototypes at five different agencies. These prototypes are rapidly scalable to automate time-consuming manual processes, freeing up staff time for other mission-critical responsibilities.

Ruby on Rails (Rails) and Amazon Cloud
myUSCIS is a customer centric program that will simplify the immigration journey. It creates self-help tools to empower the user to understand the immigration benefits. With Rails and Amazon Web Services, USCIS is continuously integrating and delivering a progressively improved product with zero downtime.

Smart City Display by AT&T
AT&T Smart Cities framework helps urban areas address critical issues such as infrastructure, transportation, citizen engagement, public safety and smart grid management, to help better meet the needs of citizens by using Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.

Watson Discovery Advisor by IBM
IBM Watson is a cognitive system that uses natural language processing and machine learning to reveal insights from large amounts of unstructured data, including news articles, research reports, social media posts and enterprise system data.